"I like a good story, well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself." - Mark Twain

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Why Not?

Are your teeth fixed?Are you at your target weight?Do you exercise multiple times every week, hot/cold/rain/shine?Can you run 2-3 miles in less than half an hour, without calling 911?Do you do it regularly?Do you have a real Go Bag at home?In your car?Can you purify suspect water to potability at least four ways, none of them using fire or electricity?How many of them have you actually done?Have you planted a vegetable garden?What about in a greenhouse, or using raised-bed coldframes?Can you can surplus produce?And what about canning cooked meats?Have you sealed up buckets of dry staples, like uncracked wheat, rice, beans, pasta, salt, sugar, etc.?Have you ever built an ad hoc shelter in the wilderness that'd get you through an entire winter where you live, warm and dry?Can you navigate successfully cross-country (no roads) with nothing but a USGS topo or equivalent, and a hand compass?Can you make a cache for supplies?Find it a year later?Proved it by doing same in the last year?Do you have both an IFAK blow-out kit, and a serious home first aid kit?Can you clean and dress a serious wound?Splint a broken limb or joint sufficient to allow travel/transport?Can you hit a man-sized target with a pistol from 10-100' away?Can you battle zero a rifle?Can you take your weapons apart, and put them back together?Do you have spare parts for replacing the ones most lost/broken?How far is the longest distance have you hiked in the past year?Can you move with a full pack 10 miles over rough terrain in a day?Did you do it in the last year?Do you have the boots for that broken in?Can you communicate with radios that far right now?Can you pick up broadcasts on SW?Send them?Can you predict the weather where you live from the almanacs on your shelf, your own weather station, and personal knowledge?What about the tides, phases of the moon, sunrise/sunset?Can you make what you need to live in the wilds with a knife/hatchet/machete/multitool/paracord?How many things have you made that way?Do you know what you're prepared for, what you aren't, and are working to amend those deficiencies?If the answer to any of those things is no, or I don't know...WHY NOT???

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

On top of a LOT of that except the fact that I'm in a wheelchair, which I know damn well makes me not so great in terms of MANY things physical. I can do the canning, I garden (raised keyhole beds and the greenhouse), I can make candles with tallow and beeswax, I can extract honey, I can shoot pretty damn well and disassemble weapons - I'm just not completely mobile. I'm also deaf, which makes dogs a necessity (not necessarily a bad thing, though - especially when those dogs are highly trained Schutzhund Dobermanns!!). Not the greatest way to be, but we all do what we can. Luckily I'm surrounded by family who can do the rest of what you listed and we ARE prepped and still doing so continuously (including a first responder for medical emergencies), but I'm well aware I'm the weak spot. Still, brains in helping with preps and knowing WHAT do do is helpful... an encyclopedia of prep knowledge and how-tos.. knowledge is sometimes useful and the constant gathering of news, intelligence, prep knowledge, new ways, old ways, and staying on top of things is what I do daily (latest thing I'm watching is H7N9 closely).

Still, in certain scenarios, I know things won't be awesome for me, and I'm good with that - my kids WILL survive. I've made sure of that.

Unfortunately at this time my fitness routing consists of a routine for recovery from a fatal heart attack (brought back by the 5th jolt from the defibrillator). As far as useful skills I am a basic level shadetree mechanic, my wife and I have been gardening for many years, and my degrees are in Professional Gunsmithing and Manufacturing technology. If the Book of Revelation can just hold off for a few years maybe I can finish up and depart before TSHTF._revjen45

I have extended my planning horizon from weeks (and local) to many months, possibly a year (and regional). I've put away LTS bulk, and will be putting away more. Ordered some cans of FDs yesterday. Been building out the med kits, have pretty good trauma bags and blow out kits and they go with me. Got the training to use what's in the bags, but need more (so I can add to the bags.) Bought an AED for the house. Won't help without access to higher care, but might be the difference in semi-degraded times.

The other side of that is the recovery library, and some fairly broad and deep shelves full of reference if it all goes away. As unlikely as that is, the books were cheap and are interesting in their own right.

Can do ok with late 1800s tech, shade tree blacksmithing and metal work.

Got radios and listen most days. Talk some, have built antennas.

Lost my guns in a tragic boating accident but was proficient with the basics. Have had some classes, carry every day.

Working with the kids on camping skills, and myself.

Not a big believer in bushcraft as a living strategy, but know the theory, watched the vids.

Been trying to grow food these last 3 years. Getting better at it. Couldn't feed myself, that's for certain.

Bags need updates. It's on the list.

Losing weight and working on stretching, then strength, then some personal defense training.

Making contacts in the local .gov and LEO communities, volunteering and meeting in person.

Have a couple of good friends available to fill gaps. Could use more, that's for certain.

Definitely have the feeling it's time to regroup, catch up and organize, and increase skill training. Keep building on the base I've got established, refine some things.

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About the Blog List

Not counting the news outlets or websites along the full range of accuracy and veracity, I follow 10 or so actual individuals' handwritten blogs. Looking them over, 8 of the 10 are current serving or former military and 4 of those 8 are some variation of high-speed low-drag elite forces ninjas. And 2 are cops.So in other words, the same folks I trusted in the military not to wet the bed, sh*t themselves, or otherwise run around like headless Nancys, are the same folks I trust on the interwebz, for demonstrating pretty much the same trustworthiness and circumspectly responsible behavior.Color me shocked.

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Comments are appreciated. They require neither prior ID nor screening for content. Anonymous abusive or rude comments will be either mocked mercilessly, or simply deleted into the internet ether, solely at the blog owner's discretion. (That would be me.) If you somehow labor under the misapprehension that free speech applies everywhere, try this experiment: go to your next door neighbor's house, urinate and defecate on his living room floor, and call him a m*****f****** @$$hole, then see whether you receive an award from the ACLU, or an ambulance and police car, who stop momentarily to help collect your teeth. If you don't get this, you're too stupid to be on the Internet, let alone posting comments on my blog. Disagreement is one thing, even ignorance can be understandable, but rude @$$holery will not be tolerated here. I have neither the time nor inclination to imbue what a public K-12 failed to instill in those folks bereft of the ability to reason intelligently or behave like well-adapted human beings in polite society.That's why for you there's a Skid Row.